Divij Vaswani
English III IB
Mrs. Hinman
1 December 2012
Exegesis
“The pigeon-house pleased her. It at once assumed the intimate character of a home, while she herself invested it with a charm which it reflected like a warm glow. There was with her a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual. Every step which she took toward relieving herself from the obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. She began to look with her own eyes; to see and to apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life. No longer was she content to “feed upon opinion” when her own soul had invited her” (Chopin 94).
Using pronoun repetition, parallel structure, and an expressive word choice, Chopin creates an intimate setting to emphasize female individuality. The passage immediately identifies the subject as “she,” establishing its main focus point. Chopin constantly repeats this third person reference in order to make the passage revolve around this unidentified individual. Having “descended in the social scale,” this female seems to experience a sense of individualism through her transition into a more “spiritual” level of society that is devoid of social expectations. The obligations are not longer mandatory due to a new sense of independence that is displayed when “she herself” invests the house with her “charm.” Chopin stresses the sense of individuality the subject experiences in the “pigeon-house” through her use of parallel structure. In this environment, the female begins to “look with her own